The powerful rally in small-cap stocks looks like yet another false start rather than a lasting recovery.

Companies with healthy balance sheets are some of the best performing stocks this year, and their shares could keep rising, according to Piper Sandler & Co. strategists led by Michael Kantrowitz.

A Federal Reserve pause, seasonal tailwinds, an earnings-led rally. Many of the reasons that got Wall Street strategists increasingly bullish coming into the end of the year now look like wishful thinking.

It’s getting bleak for equity bulls hoping for a reprieve from the US stock market’s “higher-for-longer” tantrum.

A pair of Wall Street’s most prominent US equity strategists are at odds about whether stocks can extend this year’s rally against the reality that interest rates will remain higher for longer.

Call it another case of bad timing for Wall Street strategists. The group, historically known to have a bullish bent, spent most of this year saying US stocks would end lower in 2023. Instead, the S&P 500 Index rallied 16% in the first half.

Stock-market strategists who were largely wrong about this year’s rally are finally starting to come to face their mistake, raising year-end targets for the S&P 500 Index.

One of Wall Street’s biggest stock-market pessimists dialed back his bearish forecast for the S&P 500 Index.